___

You've cleared the scenario [Hall of pain] and earned the following rewards :

• Strength (STR) +20

• Two random spells have been unlocked :

° [ELEMENTAL CONTROL : ICE] (lvl : 7)

° [SOUL GRAPPLE] (lvl : 5)

___

"Okay, at least I won't be helpless anymore. I'm well acquainted with 'ice control' so it's good that I got it back." Arnold smiled, "Let's see what's inside the next chamber."

Arnold cautiously walked into the chamber as the doors closed behind him. The chamber was specially dark and Arnold could barely see a thing inside.

He was thankful that he was finally allowed to use some skills but then he couldn't help thinking about the kind of scenario he was about to face this time, after fighting the Orc, alone, even though it was dangerous to do so, Arnold couldn't get rid of the exhilarating feeling that he felt during the fight.

So far Arnold's answer to every situation was to call his summons. He needed a ride? Let's call Cerberus out, or if he needed a 'meat' shield... he'll call out the golems to help him and what not. But right now he was experiencing the joys of fighting alone, even if it was risky.

"Maybe this trial isn't that bad after all?" Arnold mumbled, and the next moment the second scenario began.

___

You have entered the scenario for your second trial.

[Scenario Name] : Confront The Unknown.

[Task] : Identify the 'unknown' attacker.

[Time limit] : 10:00 minutes

[Rewards] : The next monster you slay, would become your summon.

[Failure] : Poison effect that would last till you complete the last trial.

[These rewards gained are effective only during this trial and the bonus effects will disappear once the trial is over.]

[The penalties would not have a permanent effect.]

___

Arnold waited a few moments before closing the [missions] tab on his interface, no matter how many times he reread the description of second scenario, he couldn't get past the weird objective is the mission.

"All I have to do is to identify the attacker?"

Something was definitely off but Arnold was confident that he'll manage to take care of it, after all how difficult could it be? After all it was just like a puzzle, that he needed to figure out.

"Yes... it wouldn't be difficult..." A voice echoed through the dark chamber, "if I couldn't hear your thoughts..."

At that moment two arrows flew towards him. Although Arnold could see the arrows, he instinctively raised an ice wall around himself to save himself from them.

'That was close.' Arnold sighed in relief as the arrowheads managed to penetrate through the wall.

"Not bad... not bad at all." The voice resonated once again.

As Arnold heard the voice once again, he felt a weird sense of familiarity with it, he knew he had heard this voice somewhere before but no matter how hard he tried to remember, nothing popped up in his head.

"Don't bother pressuring your brain to remember something that it can't. You'd require a lot more than just my voice to decipher my origins..."

The arrows kept on coming, the wall had multiple cracks on it now. But Arnold didn't bother to raise another one, right now he needed to focus on the voice that was distracting him.

"Oh... you're not gonna play by the rules, are you?" The voice sniggered. "Well... let's increase the level of difficulty then!"

The voice said those words and the wall that Arnold had constructed, started disintegrating.

___

You've received a debuff : [Frostbite]

The constructs that you build would be weaker and would only stand for five seconds before disintegrating into dust.

___

"Damn it!" Arnold cursed under his breath as he hastily raised another wall of ice behind the first one. "I won't be able to focus like this!"

"That's the plan, but since you're 'intelligent'... I'm sure you'd... figure something out..." The voice continued as more arrows were shot in Arnold's direction, this time the wall didn't had the strength like it did before and completely shattered upon impact from the arrows. Arnold couldn't dodge the arrow in time and the arrow managed to find its mark on his right shoulder.

"AARGH!" Arnold exclaimed in pain.

"Tsk... tsk... tsk. I didn't thought you'd be this weak! You won't be able to complete the trial if you don't go past me... Hahaha!"

"Shut up." Arnold gritted his teeth and broke the shaft of the arrow that was stuck to his right shoulder.

Normally he would've used a healing spell to pull out the arrow and get rid of the wound completely but he didn't have that ability for now.

"No wonder you're so pitiful... always depending on your summons to do everything... do you even make them wipe your a*s clean?"

"I said shut up." Arnold replied as he made some spears using his elemental abilities, while constructing more walls as well.

"Maybe you like that feeling when someone else does your bidding don't you?"

"Stop talking like you know sh*t about me." Arnold blurted out and grabbed a spear in his hands.

"Oh? But I do know who you are!" The voice replied.

"And so do I!" Arnold yelled as the wall in front of him disintegrated and threw the spear into a dark corner of the chamber.

***

BACK IN FLORIDA...

The city was littered with blood, weapons and carnage. Red, blue and black were the new colors of what was once a spirited city, which has now become the stage of a full-blown invasion of monsters.

The air which would normally had been loud and bustling with sounds of the city was now deafening with loud cries of pain, the sound of explosions and battle drowned any other sound in the area, hell had descended upon this area.

Two armies were fighting each other, one to defend the people they wanted to protect while the other army consisting of monsters, was their to kill them all, but even after fighting for hours, it wasn't clear who was winning.

The dead and wounded of the human side were abundant and were laying in heaps around the city and the faces of the fighters are grim with horror and despair, but they refuse to give up.

With the thought of victory in their minds the the monsters fought with a sense of destruction, believing it would all be over soon. Some of them had succumbed to exhaustion and were sleeping amidst debris, rubble and their wounded, while others longed for the end of this battle.

The toll on both nature and humanity was heavy. It's clear rubble, blood and broken siege engines had taken the place of buildings, gardens and schools. All seemed hopeless until the 12 elite families decided to join their hands together to defend their country from an S rank dungeon break.